A new platform called Mazal has launched what it describes as the UAE's first escrow-backed online marketplace for trading premium vehicle number plates. The app holds a buyer's funds from the moment a deal is agreed and releases them to the seller only once the official ownership transfer is confirmed — a safeguard that has been missing from a secondary market long dominated by social media listings, independent brokers and manual paperwork.
Mazal charges a 5 per cent brokerage fee on each sale and has partnered with Transguard to handle large cash transactions securely. According to figures cited around the launch, Dubai's premium plate market has generated roughly Dh1.7 billion ($463 million) in transactions over the past three years, growing at about 20 per cent annually.
At the platform's launch event in early October, an auction of ten lots raised a combined Dh3.2 million, with plate "O 566" drawing the highest bid at Dh800,000. The market's all-time records remain striking: plate "P7" sold for Dh55 million ($15 million) in 2023, while in Abu Dhabi, plate "1" fetched Dh52.2 million back in 2008.
Mazal's arrival marks a step toward formalising one of Dubai's more unusual asset markets, where a single number plate can carry a price tag rivalling that of an apartment — or even a villa.